engleski

Benzylimidazolium surfactants - new potential antimicrobial compounds

Surfactants, including quaternary ammonium salts (QAS), are organic compounds composed of a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail. Thanks to this structure, they are very readily soluble in many solvents. Owing to their foaming, wetting, softening and emulsifying abilities, and thermal stability, quaternary ammonium salts are widely used in many industries (such as food, paper and cosmetics). These compounds are also applied as biocides which are highly efficient against lipophilic viruses, bacteria or fungi at very low concentrations. Besides these, they are used for destruction of biofilms formed by microorganisms in cooling systems. They find application in medicine as antimicrobial agents and even medications. When applied according to the manufacturer's recommendations, QASs are not toxic to humans, do not corrode surfaces when used for cleaning and are biodegradable. In an attempt to find a new class of antimicrobial agents, a series of benzylimidazolium derivatives with different length of alkyl chains were synthesized. The compounds were characterized by FT- IR, 1H NMR and LC-MS analysis and evaluated for antimicrobial activity against representative Gram- positive and -negative bacterial strains as well as toward the Candida albicans fungi. The minimal inhibitory and bactericidal concentrations (MIC and MBC) were determined by using the method of a serial dilution. All newly synthesized compounds display significantly lower MIC and MBC values for Gram- positive than the Gram-negative bacteria. Among the tested compounds, N- tetradecylbenzylimidazolium bromide exhibited a considerable antibacterial efficiency against S. pyogenes (MIC=MBC=0.03 μg mL- 1). The cytotoxicity measurements toward different human cell lines are currently underway.

quaternary ammonium salts, antimicrobial activity, cytotoxicity

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